Calle José Rodríguez Pinilla
Honours a physician named Rodríguez Pinilla, a pioneer of medical hydrology in Spain, though the first name on the sign does not match the documented figure.
The official street map calls this Nueva España road José Rodríguez Pinilla, but no scientist of that name has left a trace. The Rodríguez Pinilla who does belong to Madrid’s memory, the man of science the dedication points to, was called Hipólito. Why the first name differs is not documented.
Hipólito Rodríguez Pinilla (1860-1936) devoted his medical career to a field then held in little regard among physicians: water. He practised as a spa doctor from 1887 and ordered the discipline with a manual and a hydrological dictionary. In 1913 he held the country’s first chair of Medical Hydrology, at the Central University.
There was another life beyond the thermal waters. A committed Republican, he was Miguel de Unamuno’s family doctor in Salamanca and his friend for forty years. He died in March 1936, months before the war swept away the country and his old friend.